Articulating what the company does and why it does it

Our strategy is not based on creating new molecules in our own laboratories for two reasons:

first, because generally it takes too long, and it is too risky to start way back at the beginning. It’s worth paying royalties and milestones to avoid two or three or more years of delay in having a product to market. We could develop new molecules on our own if we wanted to. We have the means, and the talent is available. But we’ve decided not to – at least for the time being.

And the second reason is because there are so many molecules developed by other companies that are available for licensing, products in various stages of development from the basic receptor concept on the blackboard all the way up to Phase III. There is a feast of products out there, of which we select only a few – the ones we think are the tastiest, like Savella, which we launched in February, and Bystolic, which we launched last year. They are available from biotech companies, from foreign companies, even from Big Pharma companies because the product doesn’t fit into their budget or because they are abandoning certain product areas.

We have a vigorous business development group that searches and identifies product opportunities. And we have two superb highly efficient groups that assure prompt and accurate scientific and marketing evaluation of possible product acquisitions. That facility – to identify and evaluate and obtain new product opportunities, is our alternative to creating new molecules. And we do it very well.